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cauliflower gratin suggestions

hello all! we're having a dairy seder again this year, and one of the sort of main dishes i was thinking of making was a cauliflower gratin (cauliflower, heavy cream, cheese - basics), and i was hoping for some suggestions on any special extras that i could add in to make it a little more exciting. no meat, no bread-type items, no corn - other than that, i'm open to any recommendations! thanks for the help!

11 Comments:

Sometimes I add sliced zucchini or peas to mine. It's also very tasty with a little garlic in the cream (but then, I'm a bit of a garlic freak). You've got me thinking about this now, so I think I'll make some tomorrow!

Peppers. If you like a little heat, then go with that, but some non-hot red and green peppers would add a punch of color.

I have made the cauliflower gratin recipe in Thomas Keller's Bouchon, which is a great dish. Of course, being Keller, the technique is really important and it is very labor intensive.
The recipe calls for Comte or Emmentaler cheese, and good cheese makes a statement in this dish.
Two ingredients he uses that surprised me: 1/2 teaspoon prepared horseradish and a pinch of curry powder. You don't taste the horseradish and curry individually in the final dish. they just lift the cauliflower flavor nicely.

A dairy seder? That's cool. Are you still going to have the shank bone on the seder plate?

(Yes, I know that this is entirely nonresponsive to the question, but you have piqued my curiosity! :-P)

Capers, parsley, olives, golden raisins? I can't decide if that sounds disgusting or really, really good. They all work with roasted cauliflower, so why not gratin?

I love cauliflower au gratin with a nice scraping of fresh nutmeg at the last minute - it makes a lovely flavour

The parsley sounds good, and so does some Gruyere. Mmmm. I don't digest cauliflower very well, but a gratin may be worth an upset stomach. :)

I've made the Bouchon gratin several times as well, and I love it. I don't think it's *that* labor intensive, esp. for a Keller recipe, but it's not a dump, mix, bake recipe. Basically you make a sauce with the diced stems and some aromatics. I think there are some panko breadcrumbs on top, but certainly not essential.

add lots of garlic to the cream, to me that adds just the right amount of "french" to the gratin..... and gruyere.... mmmm, i have some cream, cauliflower, gruyere in the house and i always have lots of garlic....

I second the garlic and gruyere ideas... maybe also flavor the heavy cream with some shallots or sofrito/salt/pepper which adds great flavor... you could also try adding sun dried tomatoes, I think they would compliment well the cauliflower...

Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking

thanks for all the ideas guys! i can't decide which to go with, but i'm looking forward to experimenting :)

@nyceater: yes, we'll still have the shank bone - the dairy seder isn't so much for the kosher issue as it is because i'm a vegetarian so rarely cook meat, and my guests will have to put up with that :) but the shank bone i figure is just left over bits from someone else's dinner, and it's free at whole foods, so i figure no harm in throwing that on the table (though the article about dairy seders in the new york times mentioned having a fruit or something on the seder plate as an alternative to the shank bone).

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